last post of the year 2007 ...

Not a lot of time, due to a busy period (xmas, xmas ...) and a heavy study schedule ("let's talk about Instruments, Meteo, principles of flight, ..."), but at least I want to wish all the people who read this blog a happy new year !

and now back to the gyroscopes ...

it's christmas time ...

"Basic flight 1312, you are cleared for take off runway 29, climb straight ahead to 4000 feet, wind is 210 15 knots" ... Those were the words with which I started my 6th and final session of the Basic Flying course at approximatly 7.45h in the morning. Intensive and a bit stressful, but I passed the test with 7,5 out of 10, which is fair enough. We'll have one more technical briefing next week and normally, we'll start on the FNPTII simulator somewhere in january (http://www.frasca.com/web_pages/brochures/diamondFTDs.htm).

After a half an hour lunchbreak, we had the test of air law. I don't have the results yet, but I have the feeling it went OK. It was a long and exhausting day ... for that, I decided today it would be a good idea to sleep and rest a bit :-). Next week flight planning test.

Only a few months left for the theoretical part!

cheers

normal job vs. future pilot

One thing we heard on the first day at SFA was: "don't count on the weekends and holidays". And the were right !
Tomorrow (saturday) we'll have another BFC briefing, at 7.30AM, sunday afternoon BFC session 5. Next week "only" 2 days at SFA, but thursday BFC session 6 in the morning and a progress check of air law in the afternoon. Not easy at all ... .

Today we had a second progress check of physio, on the first one I only had 65%, but on the one of today 100%. "Great succes" would Borat say :p

anyway, some more big tests are scheduled for the next 2 weeks (air law and flight planning), before the holidayperiod (which I will use to study, of course :p)

busy ...

Time is ticking away, there are only a few weeks left before the "holiday" week between christmas and new year. In a few weeks, we'll be halfway the theoretical training (3 months). This week there are 2 progress checks on the schedule: electrics (the 3th and last part: Alternating Current) and communications (the theoretical part of it).

Today, we started with a new course: performance. This is given by a pilot who used to work for Sabena, didn't fly for a while after the bankruptcy of Sabena and who's now flying again on the Airbus A320 with Thomas Cook.
It's not an easy course, but there are a lot things we saw in other courses coming back (air law, principles of flight, ...) which makes most thing clear :-).

Thursday we're gonna have a technical briefing of BFC (basic flying course), starting at 7.30AM and after that, in the afternoon, we have the progress check of communications. Looks like it's gonna be a loooong day. I'm already looking forward to the weekend :-).

Well, time to cook with current, inductance and impedance; Electrics !

cheers!

Pieter

observationflight #02: LTBA

destination: LTBA, Istanbul Ataturk, Turkey
date: 17/11/2007
type of aircraft & registration: Airbus A320-200, OO-TCK

same procedure as my previous flight: arrive nicely on time (2h before schedulded departure), review the flight plan and other documents (load sheet, weather docs, ...) and of course, greet the flight attendants, captain and first officer :-).

Stefaan, the captain and Christ'l, the first officer, were both very good pilots ! They explained me a lot about the FMC, the differences between a boeing 737 and an Airbus A320, the fuel calculations, ... .

Departure was from RWY 25R, with the SOPOK SID (standard instrumental departure), ILS landing on RWY 06 at LTBA. Afterwards departure on 36R and finally a STAR (standard arrival) via FLORA on RWY25L.

and now the most interesting part: the pics :-) enjoy !

Brussels Airlines: new callsign

from the NOTAM's (notice to airmen) of Belgocontrol:
A1592/2007
Valid from : 14/11/2007 00:00 Until : PERM
Text : BRUSSELS AIRLINES ACFT OPERATOR WILL USE NEW RADIO TELEPHONY DESIGNATOR ''BEE-LINE'' IN THEIR COMMUNICATION WITH ATC UNITS INFO WILL BE INCLUDED IN NEXT EDITION OF ICAO DOC 8585
That reminds me about a remark of our instructor of Flight Planning (Tim, pilot at Brussels Airlines): some people sugested "beatle" (say: bé-tail) ... what a pitty they didn't took that one !

Tomorrow I'll have my second observation flight, this time with Thomas Cook, to Istanbul (Ataturk, LTBA), their callsign ... THOMAS COOK. How original :-). But of course, I'm still looking forward to my first observation flight with them, the first one in an airbus A320!

day 37 - 07 nov 2007

Time ... I could use a bit more of that ! This week we started with the basic flying courses (BFC). What's this about? Well, to explain it on a simple way: take flight simulator 2004, a yoke, pedals and a throttle panel and learn to fly (using a pitch-power table). It isn't that easy as you might think: you have to do everything very precise and fast enough, and do 2 things at the same time: bank & climb/descent. So, while you use your left hand to control the yoke (turn, climb), you use you right hand to move the throttle (climb => RPM increase of the engine to maintain the same speed).
Besides that, of course, the other courses continue. At the end of the month we'll have the last progress check of Electrics (AC) ... I'll be happy when that part is over :-).

Results Progress Checks

• Instrumentation: 63% (73% for the Multiple choice part, 53% for the open questions), next time better !


• Meteorology: 80%


• Basic Navigation: 75%

SFA on Channel Z

the movie from a few weeks ago, when Kanaal Z visited us @ SFA. Enjoy!

day 30 - 26 okt 2007

Hi,

after a nice but also intensive weekend with not a lot of sleep ("kadervormingsweekend", AFS -> workshops, seeing people back, 2 parties, ...), we started this week with flight planning and air law, in the evening revision of radio navigation for the courses of tuesday morning, general navigation in the afternoon, psychology and instrumentation on wednesday, Basic Flying Course briefing thursday morning, in the afternoon time to study Meteorology for the Progress Check of today. And then there was also Physio this morning. As you can read: a well - filled week with variation !!! The basic flying courses are actually practical courses, on a "normal" pc (with flight simulator 2004) but with a yoke, pedals and a throtthle panel. Sounds easy, but I think it won't be that easy (multitasking !). The briefing on thursday morning (7h30 AM - 1h20 PM) was an long and intensive one ... .

This weekend I'll be studying basic navigation, we have our first progress check about that on monday. Next week will be filled with basic navigation and communications, instrumentation and on thursday a day off. Looking forward to the schedule of november.

exhausted (but happy) greetings

Pieter

day 23 - 17 okt 2007 (updated)

Since last week, we have "flight planning". This week, we started to use a VFR chart, used for visual navigation (so using landmarks, but also VOR's, NDB's, DME's, ... at low altitudes). The chart we use is the ED-6 chart, which covers the southern part of Germany and of course also a part of Switserland, Austria and France. It is a very interesting course, given by an pilot of brussels airlines who loves the avro's :-). And what makes the courses the more interesting is that I know some places on the chart ! (I have a friend who used to study/live in Friedrichshafen and I visited her in march, just before my selection tests in april). So this is a special one for Melanie and Annika :-).

observationflight #01: LELC

only 1 word: GREAT ! Takeoff in Brussels on runway 02 (works in progress on 07R which is normally in use for takeoffs with easterly winds), good weather, no fog. Flight to Murcia was smooth and a nice visual landing afterwards on runway 05 in Murcia. 1hour between arrival and departure, takoff on 05 and afterwards landing on 02 again.

Conclusion: I'm quit impressed about the workload during takeoff and landing, communications etc. but it's very useful and it's realy motivating. The crew was also very friendly and kind to me, special thanks to captain B. Dierickx and first officer Roby !!!

some pics:





--

LELC Murcia information
with OO-JAT

day 19 - 11 okt 2007

results Internal Progress Check basic radio: 80% :-)

day 17 - 09 okt 2007

results of the internal progress check DC (Direct Current, electrics and electronics): 75%. So that's ok :-) We're still waiting for the results of the basic radio test (that was our first test, also electrics and electronics).
My first observation flight will be this saturday, 13 october 2007, flight 6501 from jetair (BRU-MJV and back). Nice !
but first: this thursday (11 october 2007) test of instrumentation.

07 okt 2007 - on the radio

SFA students talking about their passion on radio 1

day 14 - 04 okt 2007

Channel Z tonight (Kanaal Z, Canal Z):
Vanavond in het journaal o.a.:
Aantal studenten in pilotenopleiding stijgt explosief
Het aantal jongeren dat zich inschrijft om lijnpiloot te worden in ons land, is op een jaar tijd meer dan verdubbeld. De vliegscholen kunnen de aanvragen nauwelijks bijbenen. Deze zomer smeekte de Belgische luchtvaartsector nog om nieuwe piloten, en blijkbaar krijgt hun oproep ook gehoor.
http://www.kanaalz.be

Guess where they filmed? ...Good guess, @ SFA. And they did some interviews with students of our promotion. Maybe me, maybe not :p.

Update: SFA and 2 future pilots including a 25 year old one on the news ... .

day 12 - 02 okt 2007

The train.
Only 3 weeks ago I started with the ATPL program, hunting my dream. And when I make a comparison between my life before the start of the training and now, it's more than a day-and-night difference.

Take for example the daily trainride between Leuven and Brussels. I remember the feeling I had every time the train passed the lightning of the short final of runway 02, with a plane making his final corrections for a touchdown on that runway. Or the noise when a plane passed just over the train ... it was always with the feeling I belong up there, above the clouds or at least in that plane instead of in the train and later on at my desk, in front of a computer. I've always been motivated to do my work as a webdesigner, but now I realize every morning that this was the right decision I made. And even with the sometimes very difficult courses, almost all evenings filled with studying, no income anymore and a less secure future, I feel myself at ease at night, just before I go to sleep.

When I was a kid, I used to spent some time at my grandparents place, playing in the garden or watching tv. They live under the final route for that runway 02, which they use when there are northern/easterly winds. And every time I heard a plane arriving, I ran outside (when I was watching tv) and looked at it as it was gliding in the air, just as long as possible. Even now, if the weather is good and I hear a noise of a plane, I tend to have a quick look or step outside to see what kind of a big bird will touch down in a few moments. Realizing that one day I'll be sitting in front of that plane, maybe even seeing my grandparents house ... priceless.

There is something like human performance and limitations, we learn about that :-), but motivation realy can move the borders of the limitations.

Time for some basic navigation exercises, about great circle traks, rumb line tracks, convergency angles and earth convergency, HOORAY :-)

day 11 - 01 okt 2007

Short message: after the weekend a cloudy (but not rainy) mondaymorning, basic navigation in the morning and instrumentation in the afternoon. Lots of changes in the runway-in-use configuration today: first 25L and 25R in use, then 07L and 07R in use (very rare, since planes have to land over the city of Brussels and without Instrument Landing System, only with heavy Easterly winds and/or works on the crossing runway 02-20) and in the evening (with rain and still wind comming from the east) landings again on 25L and 25R. Low clouds, we saw 3 planes making a go-around ... impressive, you hear the engines on full throttle just before they want to touch down (but are still too high or flying too fast). And landing with tailwind is actually a no-go, but since there is this stupid diversion plan to reduce noise, they HAVE to use both the 25L and 25R runways instead of the 07L and 07R runways (with landings over Brussels City).

We don't see the morning arriving heavies (the continental 777 ...) anymore, looks like their schedules have changed :(.

Day 10

After a chill-out evening with Pieter (other classmate from Aalst who is living in Leuven during the theoretical training at SFA) with some good beers in "De blauwe kater" (a pub in Leuven), I got up friday morning later than usual. Not that I didn't want to go to school, but the weather was typical Belgian: rainy. On those moments the only thing you wish is getting that ATPL as soon als possible, finding a job with an airliner and spending most part of the day ABOVE those rainy clouds.

courses of the day were: Communications (Don't use always "Roger") and principles of flight (what's lift, drag, ...). In the evening we (people from prom6) also received an e-mail from jetair with the schedule of the next 15 days (01/10 - 15/10) to arrange an observation flight if we want so. Only problem: we still didn't receive our uniform which is obligatory for those flights! Can't wait to enter a jetair cockpit with my newly fresh SFA uniform for my first observation flight. By the way: one of the destinations is Cancun (in Mexico), but I think I'll skip that destination in my choice: I don't want to spend the whole weekend on OO-TUC :-).

day 09

Yesterday no news, because I had to study the whole chapter about basic radio. Today it's the 9th day we had courses and so was there also our first internal examination about a chapter we finished. Not a very huge chapter, but still fast enough. I don't know the result yet, I'm always a bit scared when making predictions, but I think I'll have the 75% a man must have to pass.

Now it's time for a relaxed evening (unfortunatly not Kili time), tomorrow again the last day of the "workweek" and then a weekend to study. Yesterday and today we had "Mass and Balance" and we have to know quit a lot by hearth (what's included in the MTOW, MLW, DOM, DEM, TL, ..., the weight you use for a male / female / infant / cabin crew / ... on different kind of flights and conversions between meters, feet, yard, NM, SM, kg, lbs, N.kg, N.lb, ...) to make a loadplan. And you can be sure you don't want to make mistakes with that ;-).

PS: today we also had fysio; that's about human limitations etc. subject one: THE HEART !! Hmmm would that be on request from the people of medex? ;-)

day 07

Today, we saw in the morning an A330 (big one) of Brussels Airlines, ALMOST making a go-around because a smaller plane from Air France was still on the runway. But he cleared the runway just on time so that the big birdy could make a succesful touchdown.

Later, while in the classroom (electrics ... pfff ...) we heard a noice and felt it too: an airbus A300 of DHL was doing some engine tests next to our building ... kewl :-).

And last but not least: I received my BIAC badge !!! No strugling with the fax machine any more in the morning ;-)

day 06

After a nice but short weekend w/o enough hours of sleep, there was again a monday. I guess it will always be hard getting up on a monday, but it wasn't raining, we spotted again some nice (smaller) aircraft landing on RWY 25L (invasion of the germans, all lufthansa planes (CRJ, Airbus A319)), and the courses were again interesting.

This week thursday we have our first internal test (so that's not the official one from the goverment, but it's still important). It's about a chapter which is already finished (that shows that all classes are in fast forward mode ;-)): basic radio. Need sleep vs must study every evening, conclusion: the blogsite might be a bit outdated sometimes this week. But I'll update again at the end of the week or in the weekend, that's for sure!

And wish me luck for thursday, bcause I'm a bit nervous already!

day 04

While going with our bikes from the railway station of Kortenberg to SFA, we cross the "on finals route" of runway 25L (Left). Sometimes it's very quit, almost no traffic, but in the morning you can be lucky to see some heavies landing (Boeing 767 or 777 of American Airlines, Contintal Airlines, Delta Airlines ... and Airbus A330 of Jet Airways). Every time you see and hear one of them landing, you know why you're doing all this effort. Maybe some day I'll take my camera with my and make a short movie of it.

In the morning, we had electrics, which wasn't very difficult (the basics I had while studying MCT). Normally we would have had instrument navigation in the afternoon, but because the teacher couldn't be there, they replaced it by 1 hour basic radio. Next week we'll have our first test of it, and as you may know, the minimum score is always ... 75%. So I'm gonna study now :-).

This weekend (including tomorrow evening) I'm on an AFS weekend, so probably no update tomorrow evening.

have a nice weekend everyone !

day 03

Shortly: today we had navigation (interesting !) and more about instruments (working about the altimeter and vertical speed indicator (VSI)). And I saw a plane making a go-around this morning; hooray :p

day 02

Today was the first day we had "meteo" ... and to get into the right mood for that, there was this morning ... RAIN. The typical belgian rain. Anyway, I went trough it with my bike, to the railway station, arrived there really on time (good to know for tomorrow), took the train to Kortenberg (direct and only 10 minutes !), then again by bike to SFA (at least I'll practise sport 4 times a day :p), this time they received the fax from SFA with my name on it @ the security entrance :-), drank a coffee with my other classmates and went to the classroom on time.
And then we waited ... and waited ... the teacher wasn't there and wouldn't come. Normally we would have had 3 hours Mass and Balance, instead of that we went to the departure area of the airport to drink something. Expensive but sweet :-). Some of us went into the B-terminal, but since I don't have my airport badge already I wasn't allowed :(. Another time then !

In the afternoon, we had meteo. Interesting, but also not easy. The book of Instrumentation is crying for attention, gonna have a look at it now ;-)

Hasta mañana !

day 01

Wow ! (and that's not the Vista Wow, or the abreviation of the famous but weird game ... ;-))
It looks like we'll have to play it hard. I never thought something else, but after day 1 I realised that there won't be many evenings without making resumes of what I've learned that day. Today was filled with radio communications in the morning and Instruments in the afternoon. And that's certainly not only about how to turn on your radio and change the frequency or how to read how fast you fly. So, if you don't hear something from me for a while, I won't be taken by aliens or eaten by my big fat cat, but just ... studying. And doing some observation flights in the weekends, trying to tune the communications to the frequency of Studio Brussel ;-).

Start of the day: everything went well, I was able to get out of my bed (not that I slept that well), took a shower, had a fast breakfast, got on my bike to the railway station and was there nicely on time ... the only problem was that they wouldn't let me in trough the security office at the airport. Since I still don't have my airport badge the people from SFA have to send a fax to the security people to tell them I should be allowed to enter. Well, that fax didn't arrive this morning. After waiting for about half an hour, they received a second fax ... . I can't wait to receive my airport badge !

schedule of this evening: diner and study. Hooray :-) (I'm not complaining at all !)

Cleared for take off !

1. Medical certificate: confirmed that everything is OK, will be send on monday
2. introduction day at SFA: cool, received my flightcase, 2 ties (for the uniform), some other stuff I'll need and already 9kg of books :p. That are 6 books, there are still 9 missing ... .
3. # Holidays: very low. Pressure: very high. Workload: very high. Observation flights: 14. Motivation: very very high :-)

Courses will start on monday, from 8:20AM - 4:50PM. Let's get started !

Still on the ATC Clearance channel ...

Since a few days, I am again able to walk normally, to use my bike, to take the stairs several times a day to go to my room without the need to take a break after every 4 steps ... that feels good :-). As I'm still waiting for the piece of paper that says I'm qualified to become a pilot (professionalism of the belgian government), I already started refreshing my knowledge of physics (thanksfully, it isn't that long ago I studied all that). My room is totally clean, my bookshelves are almost empty, ready to receive the books I'll have to study the next 8 months.

one more week to go ... I'm getting pretty excited about it by now !

Swiss International Airlines vs. Sobelair, Airbus vs. Boeing

physics

desk #1 (study)

desk #2 (computer)

You know you want to become a pilot when ...

Hi folks,

rest vs. busy
stay in bed vs. move your apartment
don't use stairs vs. my room at the 2nd floor
don't raise overweight boxes vs. pack stuff into boxes and unpack them back at home

the text before vs. was the advise of the doctors after the research and test of my heart, last wednesday. The part after the vs. is what I did the last days, because I had to. I guess that's why I feel a bit tired now ... .
One may wonder: what the hell did they do? Well ... they connected cables trough my heart via the groins (they say it's the easiest way like that ...) and did some tests for about one hour. They made my heart beat faster and harder, but the hardest part was actually when they put the cables into my body. Even with 3 anaesthesias it could feel it quit well ! Thanksgod the doctor and assistants were very friendly. There was actually also a handsome assistant, maybe it was because of her that my heart beated that hard and fast ;-). The principle doctor told me everything was ok, so he wrote a report that stated my qualification to become an airline pilot. What a relief !!

Afterwards I had to lay in bed, totally flat, for about 3 hours. After those 3 hours I could get up, but as I was still a bit tired and felt groggy after standing up, I decided to stay in bed for another hour before trying to get up again.

another sleepy hour passed by when a doctor woke me up and told me that everything was fine. Normally, the research was going to be in the afternoon, but they managed to put me on the schedule in the morning, so I didn't have to spend the night in the hospital. At about 8 o'clock in the evening I could leave the hospital.

You know you want to become a pilot when ... you feel happy after such an examination, just because it saved my future plans and desk above the clouds :-)

I guess I'll spend a lot of time in my bed the next days, hopefully I can walk again "decent" next wednesday.

to be continued ...

every new beginning ...

... comes from some other beginning's end.

Today it was my last day at the RVP/ONP. I worked there for about 1 year and 11 months (started in october 2005), as webdesigner. My colleages described me as a crazy person, I guess they were right ... :-).

co-workers from over there, if you read this: TAKE CARE AND THANKS FOR EVERYTHING !!! I will never forget about you all, even not at 40 000 ft. ASL with a crew of nice female flight attendants ;-). Don't forget to do the scrum meetings on time, don't spend too much time at the coffee machine and don't forget to feed the plants ! ;-)

Hasta la proxima, chicos y chicas, que te vayan bien !!

Welcome

Welcome !!!

After about 20 years of dreaming, I decided that the risk is worth it and so I'll start with the integrated ATPL course to become an airline pilot. I'll use this blog site to share my experiences, feelings, stories and the progress of my training.